Super Bowl LVII or Super Bowl 57? NFL's Roman Numerals, Explained

May 2024 · 5 minute read

There is a good reason why the NFL followed Roman numerals to name every Super Bowl sport. Here's methods to decode the NFL's Roman numeral recreation names.

Kelly Corbett - Author

Who’s in a position for the big sport? Super Bowl LVII will take place on Sunday, Feb. 12, 2023, at the State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz. It'll be played between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles.

Also stepping foot into the stadium that night time might be new mother Rihanna, who will carry out during the halftime show. As we near the big recreation, if in case you have a large number of questions going via your mind.

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While we will’t predict the winner or tell you how much cash you should bet on brackets, we will solution some simple inquiries in regards to the game. Like, why does the Super Bowl solely use Roman numerals to name each 12 months's recreation? Also, how precisely does one decipher these numerals? Keep scrolling to find out.

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Why does the Super Bowl use Roman numerals to call its games?

To be sure we’re all at the similar web page, LVII stands for 57. As in the 57th Superbowl happened in 2023 between the Chiefs and Eagles.

But in case you are sitting here questioning why the Super Bowl wasn't simply named Super Bowl 57 or Super Bowl 2023, you might be now not by myself. (*57*) a great query.

According to the NFL, "The Roman numerals were adopted to clarify any confusion that may occur because the NFL Championship Game — the Super Bowl — is played in the year following a chronologically recorded season. Numerals I through IV were added later for the first four Super Bowls."

OK, cool, but what does all that imply exactly?

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Let's break it down: Each Super Bowl recreation takes position initially of a brand new calendar 12 months (usually in January, however once in a while February). But get this? The sport is in fact being counted for the season prior. For instance, when the Los Angeles Rams received the ultimate Super Bowl final 12 months in 2022, they if truth be told received the culminating recreation of the 2021 soccer season.

Therefore, it could get awfully confusing if the NFL opted to name each recreation via the season it used to be played.

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Furthermore, the past due Lamar Hunt, who based the Kansas City Chiefs and got here up with the identify Super Bowl, opted for the use of Roman numerals because they add "pomp and gravitas to the public mind." Not to say, Roman numerals are the world over recognized, which makes it more uncomplicated for folks from in all places the arena to grasp the development.

Here's how the NFL's Roman numerals machine for naming games works.

Understanding tips on how to learn Roman numerals is more straightforward said than achieved. To get began, let's take a look at Super Bowl LIV which came about in 2020. It was once the 54th Super Bowl.

As we discussed before, this yr's recreation, Super Bowl LVII, is the 57th Super Bowl sport. When it comes to the numerals, LIV and LVII are lovely an identical apart from there's an extra I in the latter, and the V image have been switched. So how exactly do you read those and distinguish the difference? Learning the values of the Roman numerals is the first position to start out:

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I represents 1.

V represents 5.

X represents 10.

L represents 50.

C represents 100.

D represents 500.

M represents 1,000.

Now that now we have gotten that out of the best way, each number is deciphered from left to proper, even though you may be required to perform a little math.

When a logo follows a larger or equivalent symbol, the 2 numerals are added in combination. But if a smaller symbol seems earlier than a larger symbol, the smaller numeral is subtracted from the bigger one.

So, using our earlier examples: Super Bowl LVII = 50 + [ 5 + 2 ] = Super Bowl 57.

However, Super Bowl LIV = 50 + [ 5 - 1 ] = Super Bowl 54.

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One exception: The NFL ditched Roman numerals for the fiftieth Super Bowl in 2014.

Every Super Bowl recreation has followed the rules of Roman numerals except for for the 50th game in 2014. It was simply called Super Bowl 50.

As the league's vp of brand name and inventive Jaime Weston advised ESPN at the time, the "L" (aka the Roman numeral for 50) simply wasn't very fulfilling to the attention.

"When we developed the Super Bowl XL logo, that was the first time we looked at the letter L," Jaime stated on the time. "Up until that point, we had only worked with X's, V's, and I's. And, at that moment, that's when we started to wonder: What will happen when we get to 50?"

The following 12 months, the league returned to Roman numerals.

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